Clark, feeling his end draw near, asked for the communion. The jailors conveyed his request to their master; the noise of the bolts was soon heard, and a turnkey, stepping into the midst of the disconsolate band, pronounced a cruel _no!_[630] On hearing this, Clark looked towards heaven, and exclaimed with a father of the church: _Crede et manducasti_, Believe and thou hast eaten.[631] He was lost in thought: he contemplated the crucified Son of God; by faith he ate and drank the flesh and blood of Christ, and experienced in his inner life the strengthening action of the Redeemer. Men might refuse him the host, but Jesus had given him his body; and from that hour he felt strengthened by a living union with the King of heaven. [630] Not be suffered to receive the communion, being in prison. Ibid. p. 428. [631] Ibid. Habe fidem et tecum est quem non vides, (Have faith, and he whom you do not see is with you,) says Augustine in another place. See Serm. 235, 272. Tract. 26, Evang. Joh. [Sidenote: DEATH OF FOUR PRISONERS.] Not alone did Clark descend into the shadowy valley: Sumner, Bayley, and Goodman were sinking rapidly. Death, the gloomy inhabitant of this foul prison, had taken possession of these four friends.[632] Their brethren addressed fresh solicitations to the cardinal, at that time closely occupied in negotiations with France, Rome, and Venice.[633] He found means, however, to give a moment to the Oxford martyrs; and just as these Christians were praying over their four dying companions, the commissioner came and informed them, that "his lordship, of his great goodness, permitted the sick persons to be removed to their own chambers." Litters were brought, on which the dying men were placed and carried to their rooms;[634] the doors were closed again upon those whose lives this frightful dungeon had not yet attacked. [632] Taking their death in the same prison. Foxe, v, p. 5. [633] State Papers, i, p. 169. [634] Foxe, v, p. 5. It was the middle of August. The wretched men who had passed six months in the cellar were transported in vain to their chambers and their beds; several members of the university ineffectually tried by their cares and their tender charity to recall them to life. It was too late. The severities of popery had killed these noble witnesses. The approach of death soon betrayed itself; their blood grew cold, their limbs stiff, and their bedimmed eyes sought only Jesus Christ, their everlasting hope. Clark, Sumner, and Bayley died in the same week. Goodman followed close upon them.[635] [635] Ibid.